The Web Is Dying; Apps Are Killing It - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are-killing-it-1416169934

<comment><USER2> Just yesterday, I was reading about the theory of "Peak App", which is based on surveys of leading app publishers showing that being #N in Apple's App Store (for very high-ranking N) means _significantly_ less money than being #N in the App Store just two years ago.

Though the overall sales in the app stores (Apple and Google) are still increasing, they are increasing much more slowly than the number of available apps, and developers are able to charge less today than in the past for each app, resulting in a situation where the vast majority of apps just aren't worth building as products in themselves. Fewer and fewer people are buying their first phone, and first phone buyers are the main buyers of apps. People on their third phone don't do much shopping for new and interesting apps. They just use what they've been using--the apps that came with the phone plus a handful of other standards from, say, Google, Facebook, and Twitter--and beyond that they don't care.

It's getting to the point where the only reason to develop a new commercial app (as opposed to a personal project) will be as a component in a business that sells things other than apps. If you are trying to build a business selling apps (including in-app purchases of upgrades and add-ons), your chances of success are falling fast.

So, apps are not only "killing the Web", they are in that same sense killing themselves.

What's really dying here is just the potential for most people to make a fortune building websites or phone apps as competition drives it toward ordinary compensation for ordinary work.

<comment><USER3> This should be in every econ 101 textbook.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is behind a paywall. The main points are the following:

1) It's now 86 to 14 percent of phone time for apps vs web. 2) App stores (controlled by Apple/Google) take big fees and make the world much less open. 3) Lists on the stores drive adoption. 4) Search in the stores are broken. 5) Market dominance is bad for innovation and consumers

<comment><USER5> 86 to 14...I wonder where my time reading web pages in my Twitter and FB apps — and Reeder — account towards.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This article sounded worrying at first, but it's not that bad.

Most people, consumers, don't necessarily desire the "open-ness" of the Internet, but rather the usefulness of the tools made by corporations which happen to have been delivered over the Internet. Indeed, this would be why those corporations are so big. So technically, consumers win.

The problem is we (hackers) don't like to hear this. We want to believe in the era where a startup like Instagram can thrive. But it's not like the Internet is going to become dysfunctional. Rather, if the web is indeed dying, it will regress to a state where only the "counter-culture" kind of people use it. For most people, it's easier to just use apps anyway, and that's fine.

</comment><comment><USER6> An article talking about the "walled garden" of app stores, behind a paywall. Classic.

<comment><USER7> Those are not the same thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's strange, you'd think almost the opposite would be true. Maybe it's just a matter of who you talk to, but I've heard a lot of people frustrated with companies trying to force feed them apps.

<comment><USER9> Funny, when Facebook force Messenger as a separate app, I uninstalled both... I'm using the web interface now, and though not great, isn't bad. As a result, I'm using facebook less, and the more emails I get from them, the less I want to use facebook. I can only speak for myself though.

I'm really hoping that more companies do spend time on their mobile sites/interfaces... because I can't be the only one that's starting to abandon the spyware apps in favor of mobile web.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey I do this too! Glad to see I'm not the only one who hated how they forced their users to download another app.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Non-paywalled link:

[http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are- kil...](http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are-killing- it-1416169934)

<comment><USER11> Still paywalled on mobile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is there any way to read this without a WSJ account?

<comment><USER13> Yes, if you're referred from Google it lets you read the whole thing. So just Google the title of the article and click on the first link.

<comment><USER14> good tip - this link worked fine for me [https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web...](https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fthe- web-is-dying-apps-are-killing- it-1416169934&ei=RBFrVLe5GsTlatGagsgJ&usg=AFQjCNH_GRuh0Lrw6Rhq61CxrJT0JdVM4Q&bvm=bv.79908130,d.ZWU&cad=rja)</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: I'm 15 and I Coded My First App - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parklot/id670073550?ls=1&mt=8

<comment><USER2> Your age is irrelephant.

<comment><USER3> Except when it explains to one's inability to spell.

<comment><USER4> That still does not make his point completely invalid. "Coding" an App is not exactly rocket science, and as such explicitly linking your age/gender/orientation/other non-relevant feature with such a publication is reminiscent of bragging and quite frankly, I personally find it to be very annoying.</comment></comment></comment>


Top books discussed on Stack Overflow and other Stack Exchange sites - <AUTHOR> https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/ <comment><USER2> This is off-topic at best, but I find it interesting that with certain websites which won't be named, as a college student I have basically unlimited access to all the books, movies, and songs I'll ever want for the rest of my life (or until anti-piracy measures get smarter).

I used to wonder what it'd be like to be a rich celebrity, and be able to buy literally everything you want immediately. And now that I can do that in a few fields of commerce, it's turned out to be not very exciting at all. It's good to know that if a book looks interesting, I can have it, but it's not nearly as exciting as I would have expected it to be. I'd imagine celebrities knowing that they can own any house or car is kind of underwhelming.

<comment><USER3> And if you compare to anything but a handful of recent decades, you not only can afford to buy pretty much anything that only the very richest have had access to, you can easily buy things that even the richest have hardly even dreamed of. And yes, still most people find their lives pretty underwhelming.

<comment><USER2> The weird part is how obvious this seems. Obviously, the things we have don't make us significantly happier. But if we lived our lives with this simple assumption, our lives would look infinitely different.

<comment><USER4> Expensive things I own or rent that make me happy:

* Having my own house (no random roommates or bad family members)

* Having a computer and cellphone

* Having a bike

* Having house plants

These things cost money, and also make me happy. I think the key though is to buy and own things that will bring you joy. If maintaining house plants is a chore you're doing to keep up with trendy design, it won't bring happiness. If having a house full of greenery helps to you to feel more connected with nature it will bring joy. Figure out the things you own that bring happiness, and don't buy the rest.

<comment><USER5> That sounds just like me. I wonder if you buy apps. There is so much value for me in cell phones (hm, or rather small computers), that i feel, even if it seems like i do not spend too much, that i get a huge bargain with these small devices: weather, nav, music, video, news, chat, photo, etcetc...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A friendly fyi to BookInsider: I noticed that your amazon urls have _"?tag=bookinside-20"_ and therefore you need to clearly disclose on your website that your book links are part of the Amazon Affiliate program.

If you don't, someone could report your website to Amazon and get your account banned. ([https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+ban+seller+account+ta...](https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+ban+seller+account+tag+affiliate+links+disclose))

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your FYI, I have updated the Amazon info into the webpage now!

<comment><USER7> Seems like you're doing things above board, kudos. I was wondering, since this a site catering to entrepreneurship (among other subjects), if you wouldn't mind sharing your revenue numbers from your participation in amazons referral program. As a programmer find these sorts of lists helpful. I wonder what kind of action you're seeing for a top post on HN :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Odd that "Assertiveness at Work" comes top of the RPG books list. [https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on- rpg...](https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on-rpg/)

I looked into it, and it's just one user recommending it over and over: [https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/2100/sardathrion](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/2100/sardathrion)

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you saying that it is a bad thing to count mentions over and over if they are all from a single user?

<comment><USER9> Maybe not a bad thing, but seems less of a strong signal of "goodness" compared to a book recommended the same number of times by different users. You might consider capping the number of times you consider recommendations for one book from a single user to something reasonable, like 3. That way you get more of a crowd consensus as to what's really good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Working Effectively with Legacy Code is the best Software Engineering book I have ever read. Most authors will show you very trivial examples, but Feathers shows detailed examples and an almost formulaic way to make your code testable. You can read and memorize SOLID principles, but he shows you how to _do_ SOLID principles.

<comment><USER11> I was revisiting that book again last night briefly and was having a chuckle at some of the example code in Java (I assume it's Java?) before some of the more modern features came into the language and thinking "yep, using iterator and .next() to do your loops sure is legacy code alright!". It smelt like Java 1.4

Good times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is great, but an important caveat: this is actually "books for which the Amazon links are most frequently given" (maybe other sites too; the About page doesn't clarify), i.e. "most-linked books", rather than "most-discussed books".

For example, it says that on the TeX/LaTeX StackExchange, _The TeXbook_ is mentioned only 6 times ([https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on- tex...](https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on-tex/)), while in fact it's mentioned closer to 1357 times ([https://tex.stackexchange.com/search?q=texbook](https://tex.stackexchange.com/search?q=texbook)). What appears to be true is that only 6 times someone bothered to link to Amazon when mentioning the book. Worse, for the English Language & Usage site, the _Oxford English Dictionary_ does not even show up in the results ([https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on- eng...](https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on-english/)) while in reality it's mentioned about 7000 times by acronym ([https://english.stackexchange.com/search?q=oed](https://english.stackexchange.com/search?q=oed)) and about 1600 times by full name ([https://english.stackexchange.com/search?q=%22oxford%20engli...](https://english.stackexchange.com/search?q=%22oxford%20english%20dictionary%22)).

Under what circumstances will someone add a link when mentioning a book? I can think of two:

\- The user thinks the book is not sufficiently well-known, so they add a link to Amazon or some other such site, for the readers to learn more.

\- The user is trying to make money off affiliate links, or whatever.

For books that are well-known, or for the typical (lazy) user like me, books are going to mentioned and discussed without any link to anywhere being added (and often by acronym or nickname). So in that sense this site is actually likely to miss all the most frequently discussed books — the ones so well- known that no one bothers to link to anything when mentioning them (as in the examples above).

Shows that the hard part of data analysis is usually data cleanup (eliminating false positives and false negatives) and normalization (this one seems to treat links to different editions on Amazon as different books).

All that said, this site is useful nevertheless; thanks for making it!

<comment><USER13> I tried to do something like this years ago by scraping websites in a particular niche. I decided that I wanted to count a book any time it was mentioned -- not just when it was linked to. As a junior-level programmer, however, it was a problem I couldn't solve.

How do you determine whether someone using the word "mindset" is talking about the book by the same name, or just using the word?

<comment><USER12> It's a hard problem; one you can't ever fully solve. You need to accept some degree of error, as pretty soon you'll hit the point where every incremental improvement requires you to basically double the amount of effort. (You can start by incorporating some signals like whether the word/title occurs in uppercase, whether it has any special formatting like italics, whether the author's name occurs nearby, and so on.)

But what you can do is be very up front about the error: you can be explicit about your methods and describe their modes of failure, give examples of some of the things you might miss, try to analyze your error and how bad it is, and so on, and finally leave it to the reader to decide how seriously to take your results. (If you see some recent papers they include a "Threats to Validity" section, e.g. Section 3.4 here: [https://people.engr.ncsu.edu/ermurph3/papers/seip18.pdf](https://people.engr.ncsu.edu/ermurph3/papers/seip18.pdf))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was perhaps somewhat amused to see that a large portion of the books under "Science Fiction & Fantasy" are actually non-fiction or reference books about the backstories / physics / realism behind various Science Fiction & Fantasy universes / worlds.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks everyone for your suggestions and testing of my site. I will keep improving it. I just create a patreon link to my site so hopefully that can become a progress log.

[https://www.patreon.com/BookInsider](https://www.patreon.com/BookInsider)

<comment><USER15> There is an error on [https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books- on-mat...](https://bookinsider.gitlab.io/2018/12/01/top-20-books-on-math/)

Line 223: \u can only be followed by a Unicode character sequence.

On Safari 12.0.3.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for letting me know! It has been fixed now (will be updated in a few minutes), and I also add twitter for the Book Insider site: [https://twitter.com/Book__Insider](https://twitter.com/Book__Insider)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I see that under the algorithms tab, Knuth's TAoCP is ranked 13th equal, together with 4 others.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for noticing that! So far I haven't dealt with books with the same number of discussions. I will probably sort the tied-rank books with sentiment score.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is there an implicit understanding that these are all "good" discussions?

<comment><USER18> Not necessarily. Some of these might be universally hated.

I bet all of them are pretty interesting, however.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is true that some of the discussions actually hated some books. So I tried to use the sentiment score to characterize discussions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The serverfault.com list includes 2 editions of the same book. If you collapse them, it would make room for another deserving book.

Tom Limoncelli Co-author of TPOSANA

<comment><USER20> The book is so good it deserves to be listed twice. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I noticed electrical engineering had nothing in the power systems category, so these lists are still pretty sparse.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some of these links are actually other products (not books) on Amazon. We remove these products. Still need to improve the UI so sparse lists look nicer. Thank you for pointing that out!

<comment><USER21> No problem. I'm sure each category can be endlessly fleshed out. It just looked weird that there was a lot of EE not covered.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Surprised the English stack exchange doesn't reference the OED that often.

<comment><USER12> How they count mentions is not mentioned anywhere, but it appears they only count links to Amazon. Obviously no one is going to link to Amazon when mentioning the Oxford English Dictionary. In that sense, they may be missing the true most discussed books, the ones so well-known that no one bothers to link to anything when mentioning them.

<comment><USER23> that's disappointing. i was also hoping to see books that have commonly-used nicknames, like "the dragon book", get counted.

<comment><USER24> I was unable to determine what you mean by "the dragon book". Is that related to the recent Dragon movie that was in the Oscars? I don't imagine you mean The Magicians book 2. Maybe you mean "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (terrific dragon on the cover!) but I'm honestly not really sure what you mean otherwise :(

While you could answer my above questions directly, I don't need them answered; I'm just trying to make the point that "nicknames" cannot be easily correlated with a book when you scale up to "the entire word of readers".

<comment><USER25> He almost surely means Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman [1]... or one of the earlier versions of the book with different authors and titles ;-).

As was common for 80s software textbooks, this was nicknamed for the distinctive image on the cover.

But (and now your edit clarifies that this indeed was your point), perhaps your point is just how difficult it would be to automatically disambiguate nicknames in diverse communities like StackExchange.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers:_Principles,_Techniq...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers:_Principles,_Techniques,_and_Tools)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I hope Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is on that list.

</comment><comment><USER27> consider making your site accessible to nonjs users, please. currently, the book lists are not visible.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your suggestion! I didn't thought about that. But in the next step, I will definitely make changes to consider nonjs users!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is it sad that the most popular book is about working with a legacy codebase?

<comment><USER19> The preface of that book IIRC is about the fact that 90% of dev time is spent reading code trying to find where to insert your new code (the other 10% of your time).</comment></comment>


Show HN: A functional tool-belt for Swift Language - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ankurp/Dollar.swift

<comment><AUTHOR> List of useful function helper methods without extension or monkey patching existing classes in Swift. If you have any feedback it is welcome.</comment>


Habits of the World's Healthiest People  - <AUTHOR> http://www.wisebread.com/power9-9-habits-of-the-worlds-healthiest-people

<comment><USER2> >"Science has determined that less than 25% of a person's lifespan is determined by genes."

What does that _mean_? With a change of just 5% of a person's genes, they'd have been born a rat and died within a lifespan that differed from the average human by far more than just 5%. For that matter _wheat_ shares about 50% of its genes with humanity.

I know it would be possible to make 5% alterations in one's food intake that would kill them instantly, so this isn't an argument for genetic determinism. The question is what does "X% of someone's Y comes from genes" mean when it's reported like this?</comment>


Ask HN: Similar to HN but aimed at Embedded Systems? - <AUTHOR>

Hello, I am from Brazil and I am looking for a similar HN site but aimed towards Embedded Systems.<p>I saw the who is hiring post and it's awesome! But 99% of the jobs listed there are for web/mobile development. <comment><USER2> It's not a web site, but I would recommend subscribing to Jack Ganssle's Embedded News e-mail newsletter: [http://www.ganssle.com/tem- subunsub.html](http://www.ganssle.com/tem-subunsub.html) . There are usually one or two job postings in each issue.

Also check out the podcasts at Embedded.fm and TheAmpHour.com . They both talk about a range of embedded topics and occasionally mention job opportunities.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Anyone?

<comment><USER3> Perhaps you should make one? I've seen comments across HN that go into more embedded-y stuff, i.e. people remarking on ARM based systems, etc. I'm also an embedded guy and browse HN quite often.

<comment><USER4> [http://lobste.rs](http://lobste.rs) is very similar to HN and open source under a BSD licence. I'd be very interested in an embedded/electronics themed site and would be willing to help/lead with the creation of it if there was enough interest.

[https://github.com/jcs/lobsters](https://github.com/jcs/lobsters)

<comment><AUTHOR> Can you send me an email? wcprado at hotmail dot com

Let's talk about it!

<comment><USER4> I'll send you one this afternoon. I'd love to have this happen.

Anyone else interested can email me at derek.kozel at gmail.com</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The problem with smart people - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140528-the-problem-with-smart-people

<comment><USER2> "Creative had a technologically superior MP3 player, but customers preferred the iPod, to the utter dismay of the Creative managers. They just couldn't understand how customers were so irrational!"

I think design is just as integral to 'technological superiority' as any other factor might be...</comment>


One Scientist's Crusade to Rewrite Reputation Rules - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/culture/geekipedia/magazine/17-06/mf_impactfactor?currentPage=all <comment><USER2> Still has all the problems that counting citations do: how do you count multiple-author papers (particle physics has given up ranking authors and just put the hundreds of authors in alphabetical order, IIRC) and it encourages people to write piecemeal papers, because why say something in one paper if you can say it in two -- and get twice the citations?

Also, my favorite: What if you cite someone to say that they were completely wrong when they approached the same problem? Should that be counted as a positive for them?

<comment><USER3> Presumably, no one is going to try to prove something wrong that has already been proven wrong, so unless there are many obscure flaws in one's work that take multiple papers to uncover, it shouldn't affect the citation count much.

<comment><USER2> In introductions, papers often give a short overview of what's been done before, so early work in a field often gets cited even if it turns out to have been flawed. (It can't be completely ridiculous, of course, it must have sounded plausible at the time, but even shoddy research often does.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> this is almost pagerank for academic publications, and would probably be improved by being more like pagerank (where it also took into account how often citing papers were cited)

<comment><USER5> There are a lot of people trying to use pagerank for academic journals, but so far it hasn't worked well for various reasons.

Part of the problem is that the metaphor breaks down: a paper is like an individual webpage, but a journal is like a company -- it has a much longer time-line, and its impact varies over time. Also, unlike web links, citations don't go away; they just accumulate over time. Since the point of these citation metrics are to rate the journals (and maybe the scientists), pagerank has some difficulties in the domain. It works better for ranking individual papers than for scientists or their journals.

This shouldn't be too surprising: TechCrunch (for example) probably has a good rank on many pages, but pagerank doesn't tell us anything about Michael Arrington's reputation.

<comment><USER6> But we're not talking about ranking journals. We're talking about ranking authors. JIF if a reasonable metric for journals, the problem is that it's used to rate authors: what's the JIF of journals you publish in?

The metric presented here is much better for rating authors because it gives more of an author's peers an opportunity to vouch for him by citing his work, as opposed to only a small editorial board and review committee who decide if he gets into TopJournalX.

Adding a pagerank-style coefficient (increasing the weight of citations that come from well-cited papers) would make this metric even better for precisely the reason you state: papers exist in perpetuity. If I write a paper now but it is ignored for 50 years, then someone builds upon that to break ground in an entirely new field, then I deserve some indirect credit for that. The journal I published in does not.

<comment><USER5> Empirically, pagerank hasn't been very successful at ranking authors for the reasons I mentioned, along with other complications (e.g. papers have multiple authors).

But more importantly, you're confusing impact factor with peer review. Peer review decisions are double-blind, and impact factor doesn't play a role (shouldn't, anyway). Papers don't get published in Science and Nature based upon the authors' impact factors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Unfortunately, both systems are too easy to game by those who happen to be more unprofessional than average.

In the end, these sorts of systems are foisted on us by the paid bureaucrat- class that pays itself quite well for doing all that really hard work of managing academics. Figuring out whether someone is a hotshot scientist would mean reading his papers, and that's way too much work.

<comment><USER8> 1) Whether someone is a hotshot scientist is a subjective matter of opinion.

2) The question they are asking is not "How important are your contributions to science?", but "How important _do your peers think your contributions_ to science are?"

I'd probably go as far as to claim that it's nonsensical to search for an objective value metric for contributions to science. Scientific contributions are extremely heterogeneous, and value judgements are equally varied.

<comment><USER7> Yes. There is no pure objective measurement, but...You still need to hire some people and not hire others. Value judgments are not randomly distributed. Science is a built upon forging objective consensus out of individual opinion. It even works pretty well.

<comment><USER8> I'm not against ranking people, although i do think we need to keep in mind what the rankings really mean.

And, i'd say that the rankings work well enough, but they're certainly not perfect, as pointed out by the article.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Screw Notes, A Really Simple TODO List App - timothy-quinn I've gravitated towards a specific style of writing down lists and notes over the years, so I made a web app that works exactly how I want it to. Then I realised others might like to use a similar tool too, so I product-ised it.
I hate complicated task tracking apps, I just want clean pages and to add items as fast as I can type them, just like a real notebook. No due dates, no subtasks, just one way that always works.
Why is it called Screw Notes? Because there's a little screw head next to each item showing how done it is.
https://screwnotes.com <comment> timothy-quinn [https://screwnotes.com](https://screwnotes.com)

Just adding the URL here so it becomes a hyperlink to be clickable at least.

This project was an interesting experiment in building on Firebase. Currently the whole app is almost entirely client-side, with access to data controlled by firestore rules. The Stripe Checkout service handles subscriptions, and successful payments flow down to the user through a hook trigger from stripe followed by a bunch of firestore onChange event listeners.

This may change if users want particular features, but for now I'm amazed at how simple (from the perspective of my codebase) it was to string all of these components together.</comment>


How Much Do Echo Statements Slow Down a Bash Script? - <AUTHOR> https://colekillian.com/posts/how-much-do-echo-statements-slow-down-a-bash-script-/ <comment><USER2> In a typical Bash script calling `echo` makes absolutely no difference with regards to running time.</comment>


The Power of Magical Thinking - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703344704574610002061841322.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth <comment><USER2> "If the child already has an imaginary friend"

Wouldn't that make the child schizophrenic? I have never experienced children having imaginary friends - is that a normal thing to have?

Also, I don't see why imagination should also require _belief_ in imaginary things.

<comment><USER3> I used to talk to my WWE (WWF back then), GI Joe, and Transformer action figures. As a 5 year old kid, you realize that they aren't real. But you don't think that talking to them is anything out of the ordinary.

My guess is that kids talk to imaginary friends because talking is so new and they just learned how to talk so they want to do it all of the time.

<comment><USER4> _As a 5 year old kid, you realize that they aren't real._

I've seen a lot of parents go a little cuckoo with fear and frustration because they don't understand that. The kids get frustrated and stubborn because the adults don't get that it's very important to _pretend_ that they're real. Kids can go a little overboard with the inconvenience and even danger their fantasies impose on them, but they know what's real and what's not. Their crazy parents don't give a crap about anything except their overblown fear that their kid is suffering from some delayed or derailed development that will affect their SAT scores someday.

There are also parents who are fine indulging their kids' whims except where it involves fantasy. They'll smuggle a ziploc bag of corn into a restaurant because their kid won't eat mac and cheese without it (seen it happen), but they'll yell at the same kid if she takes an extra twenty seconds helping an invisible rabbit into the minivan after dinner.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder how much of the increase in Santa belief between 5 and 7 relates to them understand the should lie when asked that question? Extremely young children tend to be fairly direct, but 7yo are wiling to play make believe for attention.

<comment><USER5> ops, 3 and 5 not 5 and 7.</comment></comment>


Obama advises caution in use of Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://noteither.blogspot.com/2010/05/obama-advises-caution-in-use-of.html

<comment><USER2> I thought the issue wasn't "Obama is right that you have to watch out what personal information" you show per the comment but that Facebook is the culprit in exposing what information is public. A consistent policy from Facebook would go a longer way than getting the government involved to "police" the internet.</comment>


Unhackable computer under development with $3.6M Darpa grant - <AUTHOR> http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/25336-unhackable-computer-under-development-with-3-6m-darpa-grant <comment><USER2> a hacker only gets one extra challenge: forecast the address of the object that it wants to read. This approach seems hackable to me.

I like very much the safe stack that the Mill CPU uses: program data stack and the (safe) function return address stack are separated where the safe stack is controlled by hardware (and the OS allocates memory for stack segments that the hardware uses). The Mill CPU also has other hardware features to greatly enhance security. For example, parameter passing between threads is range- checked by hardware: a callee sees only passed parameters and a caller sees only the return values.</comment>


Bugbot that allows you instantly see user actions that lead up to a bug,in Slack - <AUTHOR> https://www.producthunt.com/posts/bugbot-by-kuoll <comment><USER2> Folks, and how do you record the user actions that happened in the past? Is it even possible?

<comment><AUTHOR> Please, check this video demo: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt7zs6Z4SB0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt7zs6Z4SB0)</comment></comment>


Hey guys, can you check out my new wiki/writeboard for Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://apps.facebook.com/writeslab/ <comment><USER2> Overall, it's very nicely done, IMHO. A few specifics:

Your dodge around facebook's "no more than 10 invites at a time" is clever.

That said, your app has the good fortune of being inherently viral -- users that want to collaborate with friends will invite those friends. As such, I would recommend toning down the requests to users to invite their friends. It comes off as being too pushy (to me).

It's quite plain-looking, which is normal for a word-processing application but out of place for a Facebook application. I would err on the side of fitting in with your context -- add more icons next to functions, etc.

Congrats and good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the encouragement!

I just added an icon next to the edit link. I agree it does look plain. I agree that it is too pushy, but until its got self-sustaining growth, they stay there...

<comment><USER3> It's up to you, obviously, but I found the pushiness extremely off-putting. You need to decide whether the core user activity is writing documents or inviting their friends. If it's writing documents, get rid of the invite clutter. If it's inviting friends, well, good luck, but the app is gone from my profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very nicely done implementation. It works as advertised and everything is absolutely intuitive and straight forward. I don't have much of a use case for it myself though.

At first, when I saw "Friend's Documents" and "My Documents", I thought this was like a native Scribd for Facebook. Which I think could be an interesting idea...

<comment><USER2> If you are a facebook app developer, your ears should perk up when people say things like "what's the use case?" or "why would I use this instead of xxx?". I think the general solution is to have a good answer to the question, then tell your potential users about that answer -- for example, on the application description page. "Collaborate easily on class projects! Write a story with some of your friends!" Or whatever.

I didn't mention it in what I said, but I don't think I would use your app either -- which I guess is the ultimate question, the one that matters.</comment></comment>


Argonne National Lab Breakthrough Turns Carbon Dioxide into Ethanol - <AUTHOR> https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/08/argonne-national-lab-breakthrough-turns-carbon-dioxide-into-ethanol/ <comment><USER2> If anyone is interested I have found the press release directly from the Argonne National Laboratory: [https://www.anl.gov/article/turning-carbon- dioxide-into-liqu...](https://www.anl.gov/article/turning-carbon-dioxide-into- liquid-fuel)

<comment><USER3> And the related direct link to the paper: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0666-x](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0666-x)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This has to be energetically uphill, of course. How many units of energy do you have to put into get one unit of energy in ethanol form? Need numbers on this. Would it be a win to use wind energy during low price periods to make ethanol this way?

<comment><USER5> They say in the article that the conversion efficiency is 90%, which I assume means that if the reagent supply is infinite, 90% of the electrical energy you put into the catalyst is turned into chemical bond energy.

<comment><USER6> It says the Faradaic efficiency is 90%, which unfortunately is not the total energy efficiency. Total energy efficiency also includes thermodynamic and practical constraints.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_efficiency#Faradaic_lo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_efficiency#Faradaic_loss_vs._voltage_and_energy_efficiency)

However that's still a great figure.

I'm in awe that a carbon-substrate catalyst converts CO2 so well without degrading itself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is the kind of thing that could motivate big industry to get into carbon scrubbing, and maybe eventually cause it's price to drop to levels where it outcompetes digging for oil.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is going to be big. You can make solar more reliable by over building. Then you can use that sporadically surplus electricity to make liquid fuels - needed for aviation and handy for trains and trucks.

</comment><comment><USER9> It seems very unlikely they'll be able to resist burning it, though.

<comment><USER10> With a twist of lime, they might just end up drinking it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is really cool! Since the ocean releases a good amount of CO2. Imagine pods sitting in the ocean capturing CO2 and using wave energy to generate ethanol..

<comment><USER12> Offshore wind could use this system too. It could be more efficient than the transmission loss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is an energy storage mechanism (in the form of combustable fuel), not a fuel-generation mechanism.

<comment><USER14> yes, exactly right, but a pretty exciting one. Combustible fuel can be stored for hours, days, weeks, months, and even years... unlike most forms of storing electricity.

A alcohol burning car could be carbon neutral, have great range, and be relatively cheap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Presumably when the ethanol is burned, all the captured carbon is released again... So you have to re-capture each time you use it.

<comment><USER15> Roughly speaking, if the carbon is captured from the atmosphere and later released into the atmosphere, the technology is carbon neutral.

If the carbon is sequestered (stored permanently) it is carbon negative.

If the carbon is obtained from an unsustainable source and released to the atmosphere it is carbon positive. The current consensus is that only carbon positive systems are considered a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I did this in Alevel chemistry back in ~2001...

<comment><USER17> This comes across as kind of dismissive, as if the innovation here is just a realization that a well-known electrocatalytic reaction can be used for carbon sequestration. Am I reading your tone wrong?

The really hard bit in this kind of research is designing a catalyst that can mediate the reaction efficiently, doesn't degrade rapidly, and isn't prohibitively expensive to deploy at scale.</comment></comment>


Illustrated Guide to Databases - <AUTHOR> https://illustrated.dev/databases <comment><USER2> Interesting, albeit basic, guide.

What was the source for the league table at the end? I'm struggling to believe Oracle is still first place.

<comment><USER3> probably [https://db-engines.com/en/ranking](https://db- engines.com/en/ranking)</comment></comment>


Commodore Back in Germany - <AUTHOR> https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/33/items/commodore-back-in-germany.html <comment><USER2> My dream is to buy up the Commodore / Amiga IP and make a "true" successor (as I have stated in the past several times!).

People are growing increasingly jaded with OSX and Windows, both of which lack a passionate visionary and are becoming increasingly bloated and making weird UX choices.

I do not mean making a retro device, or even playing off of some modern variant of AmigaOS, I mean rethinking/resurrecting the brand the same way Jobs did when he returned to Apple.

It would not necessarily mean completely reinventing hardware or software. Apple's switch to a BSD-based OS and Intel chips was an example of how you can build a great computer on top of existing hardware and software.

The Mac has no "real" competitors - that is, companies which manufacture both their own hardware and software to produce desktops (other than consoles, which are not really desktop replacements).

Anyhow, it is obviously no small undertaking, but I refuse to believe there should only be two mainstream choices out there for desktops, or that the space for innovation is dead (more so on the software/coding/UX side).

<comment><USER3> Have you thought through the first principles? What is it about the Commodore/AmigaOS brand that is worth resurrecting? Is it hardware? Is it software? Will this redesign be a competitive advantage to current OSes? Does the world need another OS?

I'm not raining on your parade. I'm just trying to help in the thought process. Don't let anyone get in the way of your dreams.

<comment><USER4> >What is it about the Commodore/AmigaOS brand that is worth resurrecting?

Nostalgia, and you can't really resurrect nostalgia. I loved my Commodores when I was growing up, but times have changed. The BBS software that I ran and modded are long gone, the friends I would post with are long gone, the doors would be fun for about 5 minutes.

It was great, but it's like meeting a great childhood friend that you haven't seen in 20 years. Most of the time, it's fun to reminisce, but there's nothing new there. We've both changed.

<comment><USER5> I agree that there is nostalgia involved, but it is only part of the picture.

From a software developer's point of view the Amiga is worth resurrecting because the operating system design represents a promise that you can get great power and flexibility out of modest means, by keeping complexity at bay.

It wasn't always so rosy, but you could pack quite a punch by developing products for the Amiga. The system gave you a lot of leverage, which architect Carl Sassenrath rightly referred to as "empowering the user". The development environment (a 'C' compiler, a debugger and a decent text editor would see you through) and the operating system documentation were solid enough. You could comfortably hold the entire design of the system and its APIs in your head. That kind of knowledge is rare these days, given how complex our platforms of choice have become.

I have been an Amiga software developer for more than three decades now, through the good times and the less good times (it used to be a hobby, became a business, now it's a hobby again). It does give you perspective, and not everything that came around in these last three decades measured up so well: how much of the power of the hardware platform ends up in the hands of the user?

The (for lack of a better word) "thin" Amiga operating system layer allowed you to squeeze a maximum of performance out of the hardware. I recall that during the late 1990'ies Amiga networking software, tested against a HP-UX based logic analyzer's networking performance in the lab, came out on top.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope that we've gotten to the end of the race to the bottom in desktop computers and that the market is ready for innovative, high quality hardware. With Moore's Law sputtering and becoming less and less relevant for day-to-day computing, build quality can now become a competitive differentiator.

<comment><USER7> ugh god, please!

I've been looking for something as Linux/Unix friendly and sturdy as an IBM thinkpad for what feels like an age now.

From what I can tell only the Macbook is of the same class, even business line notebooks have horrible keyboards, screens and touchpads. (in the best case you pick any 2 of those to be good.)

<comment><USER8> I highly prefer older thinkpads' keyboards to the Macbook ones. And i'm not just talking about the fingertip pressure quality, but the layout as well.

<comment><USER9> Macbook chiclet keyboards are the worst possible keyboard in terms of key placement and shape (flat-top keys) in terms of typing speed and accuracy. There is a good paper about this in the first edition of _Handbook of Human- Computer Interaction_ (copy is at home right now, will update with a better reference later). Even the "skateramp" shape of classic Thinkpad keyboards is not as good for speed and accuracy as the bowl-shaped keys of older keyboards and typewriters. The "skateramp" shape was a cost-cutting technique to enable keys to be cheaply labeled (bowl-shaped keys need to have the labels molded in in a two-step process: [https://deskthority.net/wiki/Double- shot_molding](https://deskthority.net/wiki/Double-shot_molding)).

<comment><USER9> Here is the citation: _Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction_ , Martin Helander, ed., 1990. Chapter 21, Section 4, "Key Size and Shape" on p. 483

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think something the generation today is missing is in the 80's we had a belief that we were truly on the cutting edge of the Star Trek future. But PCs were not yet really for the masses (despite what Mr. Tramiel claimed), but totally for the bedroom geek. You had to work hard to generate the smallest return, and trying to find information was difficult at best. There was CompuServe and Q-Link if you could afford it, but much of what you learned you learned by hacking on your own.

Yes, yes, snow uphill and all that, but my point is all of that energy was driven by a belief that you were just beginning to tap into real power, cracking open a portal. A glimpse of the future was in there, and the future was _awesome_.

Uh huh. Today I cannot believe how dystopian things have become. This is totally _not_ the future envisioned back in the day. I'm not discounting all advances, but I am thinking about the state of the average home PC today. It is not filled with hopefully bliss, but instead it has become a nightmare of "how do I avoid Big Brother's claws today, this week, next month?" This of course was always the Sci-Fi possibility, but I personally never dreamed that this would be the norm.

IMHO, today's computer environment destroys the inner geek. Going retro brings it back. Maybe something good and modern will eventually blossom.

</comment><comment><USER11> I remember there being a joystick released a few years back that had a full Commodore 64 in it. You could mod it with a keyboard and drive supposedly...... Found it [1]

I'm wondering if the case is enough to bring people back. There is something about a these retro machines that you have full control over that is appealing. Maybe I'm just gettin nostalgic.

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to- TV](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV)

<comment><USER3> Developed by Jeri Ellsworth ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_Ellsworth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_Ellsworth)). She built it all from scratch by re-engineering the C64 board. Very fascinating to hear about her story of the process. She's also working on VR currently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> One of the die-hard manufacturers of Commodore/Amiga stuff. Individual computers, they were part of the C-One project and a few others. One of the more notable current devices is the Chameleon 64 a turbo 64 clone in a cartridge case (you can use is stand alone or plug it into a C64 to get the speed boost while enjoying better C64 compatibility. Also retro Replay and the RRNet (one of the many ethernet carts for the C64).

They sometimes make it out to AmiWest in Sacramento, CA, (Oct 6th-9th [http://www.amiwest.net/](http://www.amiwest.net/) ) from the site it doesn't look like they will be out this year.

</comment><comment><USER13> Neat to see a Commodore comeback, that's actually doing the retro C64 thing and not just slapping Commodore logos on new computers or phones. I supposed the Amiga rights are too much of a mess to hope for much movement there.

<comment><USER14> The rights to the Amiga name are too much of a mess.

But the AmigaOS name and rights are in the hands of Hyperion, who keeps developing AmigaOS 4.x, and new hardware is regularly (well, sort of - there's a new "high end" box in the works) released under the AmigaOne name by A-Eon, and supports running AmigaOS, so the situation there isn't that bad (incidentally, Individual Computers, which this article is about also produces a number of accelerators etc. for classic Amiga's).

<comment><USER8> Didn't Hyperion file bankruptcy a couple of years back ?

<comment><USER14> No, someone filed a bankruptcy claim against them, and an administrator was appointed. According to Hyperion this happened because of an administrative error (they're a tiny company, consisting of part time staff and contractors who may or may not be paid for all of the work, and their registered address is with a service company; supposedly the service company had failed to pass on a summons for the bankruptcy court). The bankruptcy was reversed once Hyperion was able to appeal and either present their documentation or pay whichever creditor it was that filed the claim - I'm not sure which. In any case it was resolved.

But it's not exactly a large, well funded company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> tl;dr Individual Computers launches a new plastic case to house either an original C64 mainboard, or the "C64 Reloaded" board released by hardware designer Jens Schönfeld last year.

[http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/C64_reloaded](http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/C64_reloaded)

Sadly the C64R is currently out of stock.

[https://icomp.de/shop- icomp/en/shop/product/c64-reloaded.htm...](https://icomp.de/shop- icomp/en/shop/product/c64-reloaded.html)

<comment><USER16> Has this got any practical value for everyday desktop computing or is it a retrocomputing thing?

<comment><USER17> Strictly retrocomputing. I loved my C64 back in the day, but it is completely outclassed by pretty much every modern computing platform no matter how humble.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm just reading "Commodore: a company on the edge" and the claims in this vs the received wisdom on Apple are very interesting.

[https://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian- Bagnall/...](https://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian- Bagnall/dp/0973864966)

Chuck Peddle didn't have the same opinions about Apple II nor Wozniak. It's a very interesting book.

ps I also have a working commodore amiga 500!

<comment><USER19> my favorite apple commodore exchange summing up the whole deal happened during computer history museums Commodore 64 25th anniversary panel [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk). paraphrasing

Tramiel: Unlike Apple I made computers for the lowest price possible enabling millions to own one.

Wozniak: Unlike you Apple sold their computers at the price point that allowed them to not go bankrupt.

<comment><USER18> Thanks, it's great to see Tramiel in the flesh, he is as I imagined him from the book.

I haven't watch all this yet but will do so. It never occurred to me to look this up on youtube as they seem from another age, but of course it's _very_ recent history. Amazing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The company has NOS SID chips, but sold out of their 2015 C64 Reloaded motherboards (which have S-Video out and other useful modifications).

<comment><USER21> yeah, the fact that they have SID chips for sale was surprising to me. And they are 8580s!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Interesting to note the long post-Commodore history of the brand name. The Wikipedia entry does not even mention Polabe Holding NV from which the rights were licensed. Anyway, brings back some fond memories - I was a VIC20 kid...

</comment><comment><USER23> This is an extraordinary achievement for the industry and is something all of us should be proud of. It's the reason I became a developer and now I know I made the right decision. What fantastic news!

</comment><comment><USER24> Please pretty please make an Amiga 1200, and also include Sensible World of Soccer in the box.

<comment><USER25> There's a Kickstarter campaign for the A1200 case, with that one being Raspberry Pi compatible with ports and all. So if an emulator can run Sensible Soccer, so should that one. Read more here: [https://www.a1200.net/](https://www.a1200.net/)

Personally I would kind of like if there was an Amiga case that fit the mini ITX form factor and a graphics card. Not sure if the constraints for that would work out, but it would be awesome to have a full fledged gaming PC in an Amiga case.

<comment><USER8> > Personally I would kind of like if there was an Amiga case that fit the mini > ITX form factor and a graphics card. Not sure if the constraints for that > would work out, but it would be awesome to have a full fledged gaming PC in > an Amiga case.

It should be possible the DIY-way, but the biggest problem is going to be air flow to cool things down. The Amiga had passive cooling and you'd need a lot more openings in the case to handle the heat generated by a modern motherboard and GPU card.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It would be interesting to see a modernized C64 -- a C64g where "g" means gigabyte, with specs something like:

* 1 GHZ 6510 compatible processor * 8+ GB RAM

That alone would be interesting, but lets keep going.

* Beefed up SID with 16 bit sound * Beefed up VIC supporting 32 bit RGBA color * Add 3D graphics coprocessor

Probably not really feasible, but I find myself often wondering what it might be like to have the simplicity of a C64 back, but with present day specs.

<comment><USER27> An upgrade card with a 20Mhz 65816 and 16MB RAM was actually sold as a product: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCPU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCPU), but it didn't really make anyone happy. The C64 purists stuck with the 6510 and those looking for more power just switched to modern architectures.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is simply amazing. Looking forward to purchasing a new c64 whenever available.

</comment><comment><USER29> Might they be using the same moulds as the people who did this kickstarter for new 64C cases?

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1670214687/original- com...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1670214687/original- commodore-64c-computer-housing-in-new-coo/posts/1288978)

There's still a couple on eBay.

<comment><USER30> Yes, they bought those molds and will use them for the new cases:

[https://shop.return-magazin.de/newsletter/index.html](https://shop.return- magazin.de/newsletter/index.html) "The original molds from the 2015 kickstarter project are acquired by individual computers and will be used to produce a new batch of C64C cases in four super retro classic colors."

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Does any one know if they're going to sell the same keyboards as they used to?

I'm not sure if that means [1] full keyboards or just boxes

[1][https://shop.return-magazin.de/newsletter/index.html](https://shop.return- magazin.de/newsletter/index.html)

<comment><USER32> Do you mean just the keyboard or the whole computer that was in the same chassis as the keyboard?

Honest question because I bet there would be at least some market for a new Commodore keyboard made to the same spec but just a USB keyboard that you could use for nostalgia, aesthetics, or for a more accurate emulation experience.

<comment><USER31> I mean just keyboard. I would love to have one which would be compatible with PC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Sadly the site of the company that owns the Commodore name is full of 404 pages, notably the one linked to from the "Hardware" tab. [http://www.commodorecorp.com](http://www.commodorecorp.com)

</comment><comment><USER34> Had so much fun with these as a kid, I'd love to play around with one for a little while. Though hard to imagine why anyone would want to use one on a regular basis.

</comment><comment><USER35> my first computer! I sold one back in Poland for $100 when I left for US in '90\. I've spent many all nighters playing Boulder Dash and tinkering with music production while connected to a shitty single speaker radio. I hope Datasette comes back too! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Datasette](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Datasette)

<comment><USER36> Boulder Dash was awesome! I had Boulder Dash Construction Kit which I used to make many levels that none of my friends ever wanted to play (They wanted to play NES... so sad)

<comment><USER35> nice! any screenshots of your designs?

<comment><USER36> Unfortunately no :( I don't really have much of anything that I did from back then... and wouldn't have known how to take a screenshot on a C64 anyway.

<comment><USER37> The only way to get a screen shot was to use a camera or a VCR.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> It would be fun to set up another c64. Not a fan of the 1541 drive though, any suggestions for a substitute?

<comment><USER39> I just found this on google.

[http://store.go4retro.com/uiec-sd/](http://store.go4retro.com/uiec-sd/)

<comment><USER40> There's something that tickles me about hooking up an SD card, a GigE network connection, a modern monitor, and modern USB keyboards and such... to a literal Commodore 64 to function as the CPU. I mean, "component mismatch" like the modern mismatch between RAM and CPU is one thing, and then there's "every peripheral in the system is orders of magnitude more powerful than my CPU".

(Yes, I am aware of how powerful the 1541 was.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Would love to see an Atari 8bit remake</comment>


The Internet Is One Big Grey Pill - <AUTHOR> http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=78cbbb7f2882629a5157fa593&id=5759ce07c2 <comment><USER2> Taking the article seriously, what if this grey pill revelation is just a big red pill that discourages other red pills in disguise?

<comment><USER3> You can easily read the article as being self-aware of this possibility. It seems to me to encourage exactly that kind of awareness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This was very hard for me to read.

The "tweet storm" form of writing actually made my eyes hurt.

I'm sure the author has some interesting ideas, but the format was so painfully irritating for me to read, that it detracted from their overall message.

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer essay-style long form content.

<comment><USER5> I agree, but I wonder if it is merely the format, or the lack of thought and/or editing of their writing that the format implies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is the numbering here just imitation of the form of propositional logic/philosophy or is there some other reason for it?

<comment><USER7> I think each entry is supposed to be tweet-sized, and it's supposed to be read as a sequence of tweets (numbered so that Twitter's web site doesn't mess it up).

<comment><USER8> Oh my God.

That's quite possibly the worst reason to divide up a paragraph that I've ever heard.

<comment><USER9> Even this is an understatement. I would really have loved to read it in paragraph format. As a numbered list it got tiring.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Re:the giant comment chain about moderation, it looks like transparency is something that HN's moderators desperately need right now.

</comment><comment><USER9> After reading this, the motivation behind his Gervais Principle series makes more sense.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ummm, does the style and the content of this e-mail / article remind anyone of the random philosophy essay generators?

Just googled "random philosophy generator" and there's apparently like a dozen of them nowadays.

</comment><comment><USER12> Sounds to me like the author is complaining people disagree with him on the internet.

<comment><USER13> Please stop creating a new account for every comment or two that you post. HN threads are supposed to be conversations. People have conversations with other people, not random-access snippets.

HN allows anonymity and trusts users to make good use of it. This is not a good use of it. If everyone used HN this way, we wouldn't have usernames at all—just comments without authors. That would be a completely different site.

<comment><USER14> Dead honest, I've been considering doing the same and just digitally signing the ones I want to preserve identity on.

The current state of HN moderation and management is quite bad. I see no reason to treat them with dignity and respect (as an organization).

<comment><USER13> > _The current state of HN moderation and management is quite bad. I see no > reason to treat them with dignity and respect (as an organization)._

We must be missing something important if that's true. I have the same question nkurz posted. If you'd prefer to answer it privately, you're welcome to email firstname.lastname@example.com.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> [https://www.reddit.com/r/im14andthisisdeep](https://www.reddit.com/r/im14andthisisdeep)</comment>


Goldman Sachs cracks - <AUTHOR> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a04cde20-cb82-11dd-ba02-000077b07658.html

<comment><USER2> I disagree. Most finance news is very short sighted, living minute to minute... Personally I feel that Goldman Sachs has a very strong position in the years ahead; They don't even need lobbyists anymore

"Analysts wonder why Mr. Paulson hasn't hired more individuals from other banks to limit the appearance that the Treasury Department has become a de facto Goldman division."

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19gold.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Don't worry, TARP funds will ensure their executives all receive bonuses this year.

<comment><USER4> Bonuses are down 70% and top executives have given up theirs.

<comment><USER5> Maybe they just will receive the money anyway. They just won't call it a "bonus".

<comment><USER6> I don't know about Goldman, but Morgan Stanley is reducing total comp (base+bonus) by 10-30% for the people who still have a job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Everytime I see ft.com I think of momentum</comment>


Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/13net.html?ex=1363060800&en=79249ebb3016ac4c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> Flash crowds, and similar doomsday scenario's were predicted during the mid- to-late 90's as well. Back then it was html, today it's you tube videos, and tomorrow it will be HD videos.

Most of this is taken care of by CDN's (Content delivery networks) so this is not as big of deal as its made out to be.

</comment><comment><USER3> I read this article yesterday. It's completely ridiculous.

If I understand correctly, the limiting factor that we're up against is the speed of light. Granted, not everyone has fiber-optic connections at home yet, but I'm pretty confident that the telcos will take advantage of the opportunity to upsell customers if and when it becomes necessary.

</comment><comment><USER4> The bottlenecks would be in the backbones, and fixing that means more equipment and more lines. Rub money and smart people together and you can fix that right quick.</comment>


Patent prima donna Florian Müller signs on with Oracle - <AUTHOR> http://webdev360.com/patent-prima-donna-florian-mueller-signs-on-with-oracle-42071.html

<comment><USER2> That's funny. So he's getting funding from both Microsoft and Oracle now, and he says he will remain independent? Nice try, Florian.</comment>


Aerodynamically equivalent Covid-19 1.5m social distancing for walking&running [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.urbanphysics.net/COVID19_Aero_Paper.pdf <comment><USER2> In the limitations section, the authors mention that they didn't consider the effect of head wind, tail wind, and cross-wind.

Can anyone comment on the extent of this limitation in applying their findings to a real world environment? I have to imagine that on even a mildly windy day the slipstream of a runner would look significantly different.

<comment><USER3> Always stand upstream.

<comment><USER4> and never cross the streams

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One comment: most recreational runners don't move most of the time at a 6:40/mile pace. That's the pace you need for a 2:45 marathon. I suspect that 3.3/s or 3 meters/s (eight or nine minute miles) is closer to what most people are running.

</comment><comment><USER6> The conclusion recommends an increase of the social distancing from 1.5m to 5-10m depending on whether that individual is walking or running. It seems the main takeaway is to avoid the particle wake behind the person.</comment>


Fuze Card: Your Whole Wallet in One Card - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fuze-card-your-whole-wallet-in-one-card-money-technology#/ <comment><USER2> This again?

</comment><comment><USER3> This is another scam from the people who brought you Plastc. Beware.

<comment><USER4> Is it the same group? How can you tell?</comment></comment>


Top Spam-friendly Registrars Named and Shamed - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/159058/top_10_spamfriendly_registrars_named_and_shamed.html <comment><USER2> Enom being on that list doesn't surprise me one bit. When Bulkregister got bought out by enom I switched all our domains over to Moniker, and that was for the second time that we made such a move (previously from godaddy with a bunch of other stuff at network solutions).

What I don't get is this: To become a registrar is a very marginal business at best, the 'take' on a domain is less than a dollar I believe.

This means that you either have to have a lot of extra stuff to sell and use the domain to get people in the door (godaddy goes so far as to sell their domains at a loss if you transfer them in), or that you'll have to do an awful lot of them.

Either of these strategies takes a long time to get going so it would be quite a big problem to have your accreditation pulled.

If that's all true then why do these registrars take the risk of having just that happen to them ?</comment>


Berkeley council: unarmed civilians will perform traffic stops, not police - <AUTHOR> https://www.theblaze.com/news/berkely-unarmed-civilians-traffic-stops <comment><USER2> I wonder why they even need to peform traffic stops. I think the practice of cops writing tickets as a way to raise revenue is a terrible idea.

I drove 1700 miles around France for two weeks and was surprised at how few police were writing traffic citations.

I'd like to see some efficacy studies to see how it improves safety to have police write tickets for broken tail lights and illegal left turns.

I'm sure we all have stories of unnecessary tickets, but my favorite was when I was driving 79 in a 70 zone through the desert in Utah. Zero cars around, middle of the day. Why in the world would the police officer even bother?

<comment><USER3> It's always surprised me why the speed camera hasn't taken off in the us, if you're actually concerned about compliance with the speed limit or in generating revenue they are far more effective than a police officer and a car.

<comment><USER4> It's too accurate and hard to dispute. We had a referendum at my city and voted it out by a large majority. I think it's fine for cops to record your violation and mail you a ticket though. I refuse to travel to some EU countries and China due to CCTV ubiquity. They still spy a lot on civilians but at all opportunities, even in public, I want it known that no one has my consent to stalk me (incidental collection with no correlation is ok)

But regardless, if you are driving dangerously, you should be pulled over.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This makes a lot of sense to me. Why do you need a gun to write someone a speeding ticket?</comment>


Show HN: Sleeper – An ambient new tab browser extension for Firefox and Chrome - <AUTHOR> https://sleeper.fyi <comment><USER2> It's pretty! Now that Edge Chromium is good, would you consider adding a proper extension for it? Would be nicer than adding the Chrome extension.

<comment><AUTHOR> Will do, just submitted it, I'll get the Microsoft store link added to the site once it's published!

<comment><USER2> Thanks. I didn't realize I'd have to abandon the quick links functionality of the new start page. Now I have to choose between pretty tab and functional tab. I'd use this as a screen saver on my second screen, but I think it syncs my extension setup across browsers.</comment></comment></comment>


ISRO creates world record, launches 104 satellites in one rocket - <AUTHOR> http://www.news18.com/news/india/isro-creates-world-record-launches-104-satellites-1349216.html <comment><USER2> Awesome</comment>


Why are people getting worse at "The Price Is Right"? - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1740513/why-are-people-getting-worse-at-the-price-is-right/ <comment><USER2> I'd love to see some data on whether MSRP and average actual price paid have diverged over the years. It does feel like everything is perpetually "discounted" these days. If Price is Right is using the manufacturer's list price, this would help explain why contestants undershoot more now — because the prices they tend to see advertised are in fact ~20% lower.

<comment><USER3> > It does feel like everything is perpetually "discounted" these days.

Agreed, most of our general supermarket shopping seems to be on some significant "discount" since most of the time, to the point where we consider that the 'real' price and will avoid buying things when they're not discounted.

<comment><USER4> My general rule for shopping is that the real price of an item is the lowest price that it routinely goes "on sale" for.

Some examples (in my area):

\- The real price of a can of Coke at my grocery store is $.25/can or $3.00/12pk

\- The real price of Aerie underwear is $3.50/pair.

\- The real price of KitchenAid stand mixers is $189.99

<comment><USER5> I do that mentally as well, but I generally ignore the word "sale", and just focus on the most frequent low price.

Around a decade ago I regularly bought a particular food product for $10.99. Then one week it was 13.99. The following week it was "on sale" for 11.99. Then it went up to 12.99 for a few weeks before going back to 10.99. It was eye opening and I also learned to stock certain products.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article starts by saying and showing with a graph, that people are now underestimating prices more than they used to.

It then ends with this quote:

> If you ever find yourself on the game show, the lesson from this research is > that whatever you think the price is, your estimate should, as the host > says, "come on down."

Is it just me, or is this advice backwards, and based on the data and graph, you should add around 15% to your estimate to not overshoot the 20% average under-estimate?

<comment><USER7> I thought the same thing. I expect it's just a mistake, but it could make sense in a way: it's possible over-estimates of price aren't counted, because any amount over and you lose. So if only successful guesses are averaged, only the negative side of the variance is going to be shown in the graphs.

If that's true and in reality variance in both directions is higher than it used to be, you might want to play it safe by reducing your guess, to limit the chances of going over.

... but that would probably still be a good way to lose the game, so most likely the author just got mixed up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> None of those things are the reason. The reason is simple. The Price is Right use MSRP. Back in the day, with only a few outlets, it was hard to get something less than MSRP.

Today, it's almost impossible to find something _at_ MSRP. There are so many outlets and our information on pricing is so good, stores have to compete by offering discounts.

<comment><USER9> I have a funny (IMO) anecdote: I used to be a cashier at a major regional chain. I once had a customer complain that an item rang up _higher_ than the MSRP printed on it. I told the customer, 'MSRP stands for the average suggested retail price and that because it's an average, sometimes the actual price will be higher.' The customer didn't say anything else and bought the item (didn't ask for a manager or anything!).

<comment><USER10> In most American states the customer is entitled, by law, to the lowest advertised or marked price. The store must honor that price.

In some cities, they're required to give the customer the item for free if the price at the register doesn't match what's on the product or on the shelf. My grandmother was notorious for holding up checkout lines for this reason.

<comment><USER11> Citation needed-I think this is an urban legend. Because it doesn't account for innocent mistakes, which could be made with no knowledge of the stores. For example, an inexperienced staff member putting the wrong labels on.

<comment><USER10> _Citation needed-I think this is an urban legend_

Citation (Wal-Mart): [https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/03/21/wal-mart-to- pay-2...](https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/03/21/wal-mart-to-pay-2-1m-for- overcharging-customers/)

Citation (Walgreens): [https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/walgreens-to- pay-m...](https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/walgreens-to-pay-m-over- pricing-expiration-date- violations/article_b26ec3ae-0631-11e8-a8c8-1b01ddf4e5a9.html)

Citation (Whole Foods): [https://www.organicauthority.com/buzz-news/whole- foods-marke...](https://www.organicauthority.com/buzz-news/whole-foods-market- caught-grossly-overcharging-on-pre-packaged-food-items)

Citation (Best Buy): [https://www.cnbc.com/id/18846852](https://www.cnbc.com/id/18846852)

I could easily pull up several hundred more, but I'm on a VPN routed to another country and having a hard time getting U.S. news results.

<comment><USER12> Keep going then, because literally none of those mention a "law" about getting the item for free on a mismatch of charged price and advertised price.

<comment><USER10> From the very first link:

"Consumers should feel confident that the price on the shelf will be the same price they are charged at the cash register," said Attorney General Harris. "Californians who shop at Wal-Mart should know that they have the right to ask for the appropriate discount."

Are you under the impression that the attorney general of California is making up consumer rights that do not exist as law?

"12024.2. (a) It is unlawful for any person, at the time of sale of a commodity, to do any of the following: (1) Charge an amount greater than the price, or to compute an amount greater than a true extension of a price per unit, that is then advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted for that commodity. (2) Charge an amount greater than the lowest price posted on the commodity itself or on a shelf tag that corresponds to the commodity, notwithstanding any limitation of the time period for which the posted price is in effect."

[https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=12024.2)

<comment><USER13> The section of law you quoted says that the retailer can't charge a higher price than that on the shelf. So, if someone approaches them willing to buy the item at the advertised price, they could:

a) agree to sell at the advertised price (legal)

b) agree to sell only at a higher price (illegal)

c) refuse to sell

If they choose (c), then they're not in violation of the excerpt you quoted, as they're not 'charging' at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Wasn't "The Price Is Right" changed several years back specifically to make the game less predictable-- using less common products, for example, or changing the options on cars? [https://www.esquire.com/news- politics/a7922/price-is-right-p...](https://www.esquire.com/news- politics/a7922/price-is-right-perfect-bid-0810/)

<comment><USER15> They used to repeat the same products over and over, and now they try to never repeat a product or do variations of the product at different prices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> For the most entertaining version of the answer, watch this really cool movie (1) with math, intrigue, and daytime television all rolled into one. It's called The Perfect Bid. (Not affiliated just a fan.) I think I watched it on Amazon or Netflix.

1\. [https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6854248/](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6854248/)

</comment><comment><USER17> Doesn't inflation directly lead to a decrease in the percentage of the likeliness you are going to be able to hit the correct number for the same kind of products?

Also I think Apple and China kinda destroyed the whole "relative value, everything only has a 5% markup compared to their cost" price evaluation model. You know the thing that used to allow people like our Grandparents to be able to afford things like the American Dream on a single poor person's salary.

That's my theory anyways. Or maybe people are just getting lazy and not studying as hard as they used to. Or perhaps Bob Barker finally kicked his cocaine habit and no longer needs to keep taking the bribes?

<comment><USER18> Bob Barker hasn't hosted the show in over a decade.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I worked in the Casino Technology industry and learned that Casino's generally prefer non-skill-based games in their game product line. This makes sense when predicting the financial outlook, based on customer behavior and spend profiles. In my opinion, in order to 'give out' less to their game participants, they most likely provided ways to randomize the win-ratio so that consumers win less, so it is less "skill-based"

<comment><USER20> Where you working in America?

My understanding was that in the US casino games were required to be non-skill based. Is that not the case? Or maybe it differs by state jurisdiction?

<comment> GuB-42 There is a bit of skill involved in Blackjack, and a lot in of it in Poker. Some slot machines also allow you to manually stop the reels in a way that can influence the outcome, though I don't think they are common in US casinos.

The laws are usually the opposite: games of chance are more tightly regulated than games of skill.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> How about: "People don't care as much about the TV show anymore, so they have less practice before participating"

</comment><comment><USER22> From the research: 'contestants have increasingly underestimated the true price of the good over time with an increasingly greater magnitude, suggesting that individuals have become more inattentive to prices.'

Does it suggest that? Or does it suggest that underestimating is a better strategy?

<comment><USER15> Article mistakes the actual price you pay for something with the manufacturer's (fictional) suggested retail price.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I loved that a guy was able to win a Tesla because their pricing is so transparent. Yeah the prices change often but at any given time the price you get is the price everyone gets, no haggling.

</comment><comment><USER24> I would guess it's cumulative inflation of the nominal value: if something is 500 and then 750 later there's more numbers to guess in the space altogether.

<comment><USER25> The effect is measured in percentages.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Is there any app that allows to track prices in real stores over time? Something like CamelCamelCamel for real stores (not only US) would be great, I'd be down to input prices manually if I could track them over time. Something more than an excel sheet tho.

</comment><comment> dr-detroit Inflation, ya Boomer. You didn't notice because 20 years ago you purchased the last of all the appliances and things you'd need until your death day.

<comment><USER27> We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email email@example.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.</comment></comment>


EFF Border Search Pocket Guide - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/document/eff-border-search-pocket-guide <comment><AUTHOR> The upside-down part:

\----

Before your trip:

• _Reduce the data you carry._ Consider using temporary devices, deleting data from your regular devices, or shifting data to the cloud.

• _Encrypt._ Use strong full-disk encryption, not just weak screen-lock passwords.

• _Passwords._ Use software to make them long, unpredictable, and memorable.

• _Backup._ In case agents seize your devices, backup your data.

• _Power down._ Do it before arriving at the border, to block high-tech attacks.

• _Fingerprint locks._ They are weaker than passwords, so don't rely on them.

• _Apps and browsers._ Agents use them to get from devices to cloud content. Consider logging out, removing saved login credentials, and uninstalling.

• _But be aware:_ Unusual precautions may make border agents suspicious.

At the border:

What if border agents instruct you to unlock your devices, provide your passwords, or disclose your social media information? There is no "right" answer.

• _Be safe._ Stay calm and respectful. Do not lie to agents, which can be a crime.

• _If you comply,_ agents may scrutinize and copy your sensitive data.

• _If you refuse,_ agents may seize your devices. They also may escalate the encoun-ter, for example, by detaining you for more time.

• _If you are a U.S. citizen,_ agents must let you enter the country.

• _If you are a lawful permanent resident,_ agents might raise complicated questions about your continued status as a resident.

• _If you are a foreign visitor,_ agents might deny you entry</comment>


Single Use Web Apps Are Dead - <AUTHOR> http://www.worketc.com/Blog WORKetc goes so much further than single-purpose web applications (like 37 Signal's Basecamp) through integrating a number of essential small business tools into the single online environment.  One place for the small business owner to better run their business. <comment><USER2> So this company provides CRM, contact management, calendar, invoicing, and timetracking in one interface - well, pin roses on their noses.

To come to the conclusion that "single use web applications are dead" because you're selling a product that integrates 5-6 of these operations-type applications is just asinine.</comment>


Glasnost: Test if your ISP is shaping your traffic - <AUTHOR> http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest-mlab.php

<comment><USER2> My results for Flash:

Your ISP appears to rate limit your FlashVideo downloads. In our tests, downloads using control flows achieved up to 6723 Kbps while downloads using FlashVideo achieved up to 9345 Kbps.

Your ISP appears to rate limit downloads on port 8080. In our tests, downloads on port 8080 achieved up to 9487 Kbps while downloads on port 42507 achieved up to 6723 Kbps.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the tests, but if my flash downloads where being rate limited the control would be faster, not slower?

In case anyone's interested, I'm in the UK, my ISP is Virgin - it's a 10mbit cable line.

<comment><USER3> In this case, Virgin is giving higher priority to streaming video or lower priority to everything else. Traffic shaping works both ways.

<comment><USER2> Interesting, the shaping only seems to occur on port 8080 - standard port 80 traffic generally runs at near enough 10mbits for me.

Also the bit torrent test came back unshaped, I'd be interested to see what other Virgin UK users have.

<comment><USER4> Virgin have transparent caching proxies between you and the web, which may explain why some HTTP results were faster - they didn't have to leave the Virgin network.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is it supposed to keep alternating between "Time to finish: 500 seconds" and "Waiting for transfer to finish"?

<comment><USER6> I think you can safely say that is "traffic shaping" or actually, this sounds like packet insertion. Comcast does this. They insert FIN packets into your stream which makes the host think that the client has terminated the connection and the stream is dropped. It's really %^#$^^ stupid because then you just reopen the connection and try again from the start, using more bandwidth.

Obviously, their concern is not bandwidth usage, but file sharing, which conflicts with their own content services.

<comment><USER5> Strangely enough it was doing that for the YouTube and SSH tests.

<comment><USER6> YouTube: competing media

SSH: can't deep packet inspect because it's encrypted, shape it just incase.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Requires Java, for those on mobile.

<comment><USER8> On desktop, but still not launching a Java app. Latency kills my browser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> You can also create your own tests for Glasnost.

Instructions here:

<http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/createtest.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> emule - "undetermined" [http://loki08.mpi- sws.mpg.de//bb//glasnost.php?protocol1=eMu...](http://loki08.mpi- sws.mpg.de//bb//glasnost.php?protocol1=eMule&protocol2=control%20flow&port=4662&port2=58543&dir=0;1&flow0=288;522;551&flow1=371;137;207&flow2=237;218;298&flow3=376;193;594&flow4=2386;2174;2415&flow5=2584;2110;2587&flow6=2643;2221;2300&flow7=2415;2398;2432&details=yes)

bittorrent - "no packet shaping" [http://loki08.mpi- sws.mpg.de//bb//glasnost.php?protocol1=Bit...](http://loki08.mpi- sws.mpg.de//bb//glasnost.php?protocol1=BitTorrent&protocol2=control%20flow&port=6881&port2=50593&dir=0;1&flow0=891;916;812&flow1=613;847;775&flow2=833;732;884&flow3=883;883;891&flow4=2154;2155;1950&flow5=1917;1604;1693&flow6=1959;2403;2262&flow7=2157;1950;2232&details=yes)

This is run from my Sprint cell phone in a 4G area. Pretty damn impressive, IMHO.</comment>


Apple reportedly making iPhone 7c - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-7-rumors-release-date-screen-2015-6?IR=T

<comment><USER2> I was expecting a september release, but: "What's strange about the Economic Daily News' report, however, is that it says the new 4-inch iPhone is expected to ship in the first quarter of next year — not later this year in September when Apple usually unveils its new iPhones."</comment>


DoNotPay Unsubscribes You from Spam–and Tries to Get You Paid - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/donotpay-unsubscribe-spam-class-action/ <comment><USER2> Wasn't there a post here on HN only days ago saying DoNotPay had been charging their account for months after they cancelled their account?

<comment><USER3> Son of a bitch. It's happening to other people too? Every month I get "Subscribe" as the line item. I'm contacting my bank for the third time in a row to remove that $3 transaction. They've even issued me a new card, and I still get it.

<comment><USER4> A new card won't usually solve this. If a merchant has a recurring payment on the account, the payment network will happily update them with the new card details.

Look up any of:

\- Visa Account Updater

\- MasterCard Automatic Billing Updater

\- American Express Cardrefresher

\- Discover Network Account Updater

<comment><USER5> Yes he's right. Changing your card number won't do anything - you should ask the merchant directly to cancel

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Although the company appears to have early ties to British origin, most of the claims appear tied to the US environment and justice system.

        * Does any benefit of DoNotPay remain for individuals in other parts of the world?
        * Any similar initiative in Europe?</comment>


Forgetting is Key to a Healthy Mind - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying-to-forget <comment><USER2> In a nutshell: "Big smile? Short memory."

EDIT: changed punctuation. i think it comes across more accurately this way.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hitting a paywall

<comment><USER4> Try: [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying- to-f...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying-to- forget&print=true)

<comment><USER5> Paywall as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think a more accurate title is "prioritization is key to a healthy mind.". Forgetting is just deprioritizing, and only by prioritizing can our mind efficiently filter and process the most important information.</comment>


Developer claims Linux forced Microsoft to up its Windows game support - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/developer-claims-linux-forced-microsoft-to-up-its-windows-game-support/ <comment><USER2> Good article, but awful modal ads on that site.

Anyway, is anyone here using steamos or a steambox? Valve made a lot of noise about Linux but I haven't seen many people use it for gaming yet.

<comment><USER3> I haven't heard of one person using them, but similar to the sibling poster, I'd switch to 100% Linux if most of the Steam games I like were available on Linux.

That said, Valve's "focus" on Linux does seem to have seen an increase in what games are available on Linux. Or possibly that is more modern dev environments supporting Linux/iOS/Android out of the box? Not sure.

<comment><USER4> I use it as my primary gaming platform. So now you know one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was impressed by how well Quake III ran on Linux way back in the day. Gaming on Linux has a long pedigree.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone else having trouble accessing HN from Germany lately? - <AUTHOR>

Sorry, if this has been asked before, but since a couple of days I can not seem to access news.ycombinator.com from Germany through Unitymedia. I tried different DNS and the hostname is properly resolved but Safari and Firefox can not seem to connect. I can access www.ycombinator.com without a problem. Interestingly "downforeveryoneorjustme.com" tells me it is down, whereas "downforeveryoneorjust.me" tells me it is up. Has anyone else had this problem? Does this have to do with some CDN? I'm writing this through a proxy. <comment><AUTHOR> Seems to be fixed now.</comment>


Buckets is an Open Source CMS built on Node.js and MongoDB - <AUTHOR> http://buckets.io/

<comment> K-Wall Might want to include the video you have linked [1] on the front page. Otherwise the homepage shows us nothing but a description.

[1] [https://assembly.com/buckets](https://assembly.com/buckets)</comment>